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Four Strategies Combine to Raise Graduation Rates
The renovation of the 50-year-old Greeneville High School building in Greeneville, Tennessee, prompted school leaders to redesign the interior as well as the exterior of the school. To do so, they created a school improvement plan designed to boost student achievement and graduation rates.
"Although the curriculum includes AP and dual enrollment courses, our graduation rate had fallen to 76 percent with the new AYP [Adequate Yearly Progress] calculations," said Assistant Principal Vivian Franklin. School administrators needed a plan to convince the faculty to take ownership of the problem.
Leaders and teachers implemented a four-pronged approach to increasing graduation rates: 1) credit recovery, 2) the Graduation Access Program (GAP), 3) the Success Academy for freshmen and 4) the Power of I grading policy.
The credit recovery program allows students to improve grades of F in courses they have completed. These students meet after school for two hours four days a week. The school provides transportation home after the sessions. The program is also available during the summer. Students seeking to recover credit use a computer-based curriculum system that diagnoses their needs and requires them to complete only the material that they have not mastered. As a result of the program, fewer students are enrolling in summer school and repeating courses.
The Graduation Access Program (GAP) provides an alternative path for students to earn high school diplomas. Students who exhaust other ways to earn a high school diploma can enroll in GAP to meet state graduation requirements and earn a state diploma. During the first two years, 24 of 26 students who enrolled in GAP completed the program and obtained their diplomas.
The Success Academy is the freshman academy. Ninth-graders attend classes in one section of the building. The only exception is science, which has all students studying in new laboratories in the science wing. The fact that freshmen come into contact with older students when they take science classes away from the academy helps ease the transition from the ninth to the 10th grade.
Under the Power of I grading policy, students receive a grade of I for Incomplete if they fail to turn in an assignment or if the assignment does not meet C-level standards. Students receive tutoring to relearn the material and improve their grades.
The graduation rate at Greeneville High School has climbed steadily since the school introduced the new strategies, increasing from 75.7 percent in 2004 to 96.9 percent in 2008. "Greeneville High School will continue to work on improving the graduation rate each year while we strive to maintain a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for postsecondary placement into colleges and universities, careers and/or the military," Franklin said.
(Adapted from 09V06w, Schools With Higher Graduation Rates Work Hard to Engage Students in Learning)
Struggling School Joins High Schools That Work to Improve Achievement and Graduation Rates
The graduation rate at Dalton High School (DHS) in Dalton, Georgia, was 56.5 percent in 2002-2003. The needs of many students, including the school's large enrollment of Hispanic students, were not being met. The result was that almost half of students entering the ninth grade were not graduating four years later.
Dalton High School's enrollment is 59 percent Hispanic, 29 percent white, 7 percent black, 3 percent Asian and 2 percent multiracial. Seventy percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. The large percentage of Hispanic students has resulted primarily from families seeking jobs in the carpet industry that is centered in the Dalton area.
The new superintendent of the Dalton City School System enrolled DHS in the HSTW school improvement initiative. A new administrative team at the high school set to work involving the faculty in implementing the HSTW Key Practices, including upgrading academic and career/technical courses, offering extra help and providing adult support to encourage students to stay in school and graduate. The result has been a steady increase in the graduation rate, from 72.6 percent in 2006 to 73.6 percent in 2007 and 77.4 percent in 2008.
The percentage of DHS 11th-graders passing the Georgia High School Graduation Test in mathematics on the first attempt has remained steady — 95 percent in 2005-2006, 94 percent in 2006-2007 and 96 percent in 2007-2008 — while the percentage in science has grown substantially from 76 percent in 2005-2006 to 83 percent in 2006-2007 and 91 percent in 2007-2008.
By setting an example of higher student achievement, Dalton High School has become one of 25 schools in the nation chosen as a HSTW Pacesetter School for 2008-2010.
No More Low-Level Courses
The first step the school took was to eliminate all low-level courses. All students complete a college-preparatory-level academic curriculum. College-prep completers take four English/language arts courses; four mathematics courses, Algebra I and higher; and four science courses, including biology, physical science and chemistry plus one higher-level science elective. Career/technical (CT) completers take four English/language arts courses; four mathematics courses, Algebra I and higher; and three science courses, including biology, physical science and chemistry. Many CT students take four science courses. Dalton is now an International Baccalaureate (IB) school and offers an increasing number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
Eliminating low-level courses in one fell swoop meant the school needed to move quickly to establish a support system to help students meet higher standards. Inclusion has become the school's largest department to ensure that co-teaching between regular teachers and special education teachers is available in the classroom. This change has required early and ongoing professional development to help teachers master the concept of co-teaching and learn to deliver the most effective instruction.
Teachers are meeting together and using new strategies to get better results. Mathematics teachers participated in professional development to learn how to deliver differentiated instruction. The school adopted a policy of mastery learning that has benefited students by ensuring that they learn the material covered in the first semester before moving on to the second semester.
The Project Lead The Way® engineering program at DHS has served as a model for other programs of how to integrate academic and CT studies to raise achievement. Students complete rigorous mathematics and science courses along with specialized courses that will help them prepare for careers in engineering and other high-tech fields.
Support for Ninth-Graders
Incoming ninth-graders who have failed to meet the standards of the state-mandated Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests in reading and mathematics attend a summer bridge program to increase their academic skills before making the critically important transition to high school studies. During the ninth grade, students may be placed in a special mathematics class where they get the help they need to move forward with their classmates.
Another program geared specifically to ninth-graders is Dalton High School 101. In the first semester of social studies, a guidance counselor and the school's graduation coach visit the class once a week to offer survival tips for success in high school and to encourage students to take advantage of extra help and other resources available to them from the school and the community.
Extra Help to Meet Standards
Students are surrounded by a variety of extra-help options to support them in meeting higher expectations. Additionally, assistant principals and guidance counselors serve as adult mentors to meet with small groups of students and their parents to plan and implement programs of study that will challenge and engage students and prepare them for further education and careers.
Career/Technical Education
Dalton High School has taken a giant step to help students graduate in four years by providing high-quality career/technical studies that add meaning to their lives now and in the future. The 12 career/technical programs offered at the school include new and updated courses that more closely match the employment opportunities available in the community. New courses include culinary arts, graphic arts, video production, criminal justice and marketing. Students can seek industry certification in every career field where such recognition exists. CT students are encouraged to take a sequence of four courses to earn a dual seal on their high school diplomas.
One key to Dalton's career/technical success is the involvement of students in promoting career/technical education to other students. Marketing students developed a campaign to attract more students to CT studies. Students produced a feature on CT pathways to show on the school's closed-circuit television system. They also talk with middle grades students about the benefits of taking CT courses in high school.
The schools principal emphasizes that all improvement decisions are based on data. "In comparing today with six years ago, we know that teachers are increasing their use of data to guide their instruction," she said. Another big change is that teachers are hired on the basis of whether their beliefs match those of the school — that expectations should be high and all students can learn.
(Adapted from 09V13w, A Tale of Three High Schools: Using the High Schools That Work Key Practices to Raise Student Achievement)
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